Writers on Genre at the Writers Guild Foundation Throughout July

I know your secret. I know you’ve written a screenplay, and you have it stored somewhere on your hard drive.

Oh, wait – how silly of me. This is Los Angeles. Nobody keeps their screenplays secret. Even those of us who probably should. Like the claims adjuster for State Farm who’s written a screenplay about a secret agent who long ago was brainwashed by an off-the-grid coalition of Taliban dissidents and ex-KGB counterintelligence specialists to believe he’s a harmless State Farm claims adjuster with a wife who may or may not be cheating on him with his supervisor and a kid who I swear to god hasn’t looked up from his PSP since March. It could totally also work as a two-hour pilot.

If you’re that claims adjuster, July is the month for you. The Writers Guild Foundation (who I’ve blogged about before) is holding a series of panel discussions with working screenwriters every Thursday this month. Each panel will focus on a different genre, from action to horror to comedy to drama.

Panelists include the Duplass Brothers (who wrote Cyrus, which I’m suspecting will be one of this summer’s sleeper hits); Nicholas Meyer (who worked on scripts for several of the even-numbered, or “good,” Star Trek films); Mark Fergus (who co-wrote Iron Man as well as my favorite movie of 2006); Scott Frank (who wrote another of my favorite movies). All panels are moderated by Dan Petrie, Jr., who himself wrote Beverly Hills Cop. Other writers of other excellent films abound (City Slickers, Arachnophobia, Get Him to the Greek, and You Don’t Know Jack, just to name a few); visit the Foundation’s event page for more information.

You can order tickets via the WGF’s website, or purchase them at the door. Tickets are $20 per night, $10 for students. Until tomorrow, you can buy tickets for the entire series as well — it’ll get you a 20 percent discount if you want to go to every one. Panels start at 7:30 every Thursday, and are held at the WGF headquarters at 7000 West 3rd St.